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Sandberg calls reaction to Facebook Home 'polarizing'

"Keep asking us about this." Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is on the All Things D stage talking about Facebook Home, the social network's big grab to take over the home screen on your

Sandberg calls reaction to Facebook Home 'polarizing'

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. — "Keep asking us about this." Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is on the All Things D stage talking about Facebook Home, the social network's big grab to take over the home screen on your smartphone.

In other words, she's not about to throw in the towel despite an underwhelming reception.

Sandberg says the reaction to Facebook Home has been polarizing. Home is mostly getting "5" ratings (at the high end) from users and "1" ratings at the low end. But she says very few folks are weighing in with a "3" rating.

It seems an apt metaphor for Sandberg herself, who wrote a best seller viewed by some as polarizing, Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead. "The specific thing I want to be able to do is to make it OK to talk about gender in the workplace," she says. "It turns out men still run the world and I'm not sure how well that's going … We call little girls bossy. We don't call little boys bossy. "

As you might imagine for a screen that pretty much asks you to cede control of your smartphone to Facebook — my main critique of an otherwise pretty well done first effort — the folks who love Home are the heaviest users of the social network, Sandberg says. These people are using Facebook 25% more and are engaged in 10% more messages. "This is a win for us," she says.

Sandberg refused to comment directly on how Wall Street sees the company. "I learned a long time ago, never speculate about the speculators," she said. But she also maintains that Facebook is a stronger company today than it was at the time of its IPO. A year ago Facebook had 845 million members. The number is now past 1.1 billion. Engagement overall is up, Sandberg says, and advertising is strong, despite anecdotal evidence that teens and twenty-somethings are bailing for other social networking playgrounds.

"We're the leaders in a growing market," Sandberg says. While she admits teens are using Twitter and Tumblr more and more, she insists they remain active on Facebook. "We don't think it's a zero sum game."

Asked about a role for Facebook beyond entertainment, Sandberg said that Facebook is not in the recruiting business like a LinkedIn. But she points to how Facebook members helped raise money during the Boston Marathon bombing, helped find donors for those in need of bone marrow transplants, and helped assist victims in the aftermath of the Oklahoma tornado.

"Trust is one of the most important things we have to get right," Sandberg says. "It's very much the cornerstone of our relationship with users."